


born alone, die alone (no crew to keep my crown or throne)

by silverwingedplatypusbear



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Appa is Azula's Therapist, Azula (Avatar) Needs a Hug, Azula (Avatar) Redemption, Azula (Avatar)-centric, Azula Gets a Hug, Azula Joins the Gaang (Avatar), Azula is a Feral Mooselion, Azula is an Awkward Turtleduck, Azula thinks the gaang are a bunch of weirdos, Azula: MURDER, Boomerang Needs a Hug, Gen, Katara: nO, Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent, Sane Azula, azula also commits lots of treason, azula gets several! life changing field trips, is wanting to commit patricide redemption?, it is if its ozai, mai and ty lee can get behind that, more like, the gaang thinks her motives are questionable but they can as well
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:55:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27962645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silverwingedplatypusbear/pseuds/silverwingedplatypusbear
Summary: He was a weakling, a failure, and destined to be her enemy. He was the only one who chose her.Disgraced, branded, and left with no allies to turn to, Princess Azula does the unthinkable.“Hello, Azula here.”Or: The AU where things go horribly wrong for all parties on the Day of Black Sun, and Azula is forced to join forces with the Gaang to take vengeance against their common enemy. Her father.
Relationships: Aang & Azula (Avatar), Azula & Katara (Avatar), Azula & Mai (Avatar), Azula & Sokka (Avatar), Azula & The Gaang (Avatar), Azula & Toph Beifong, Azula & Ty Lee (Avatar), Azula & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 61
Kudos: 256





	born alone, die alone (no crew to keep my crown or throne)

**Author's Note:**

> hello my friends ! this is my first work of creative writing ever, so bear with me here. i am super excited to share this little piece of writing ive been working instead of working to get into college with you all! this is mostly canon compliant up until the day of black sun, and azula may or may not come off as a little ooc (more sane and caring more about her brother). i do think this could have gone down this way in canon because, deep down though, i know she cares about zuko, even in canon, and i could ramble on and on about why, but lets just jump right into the story!

“Hello, Azula here.”

She bares her teeth, pulls up the corners of her lips, and waves exactly how Ty Lee used to.

All five of the miscreants scream in horror.

Oh well, it was worth a try. Azula really shouldn’t have expected her luck to continue after the surprisingly smooth balloon trip to the Western Air Temple. At least they’re more responsive than that damned badgerfrog was.

They all attack at once, and Azula gets blasted back in a gust of air, soaked from a blast of water, immobilized by rock, and finally, struck in the back of the head by a boomerang.

The back of her head feels damp, and she doesn’t think the peasant’s water reached her there. The water soaking her arms  _ burns _ , and it takes everything to not break down in tears from the pain. But Azula grits her teeth and retains her composure. She is no stranger to masking her feelings after all.

“I’m not here to fight you, you imbeciles!”

Okay, maybe antagonizing them isn’t the best option, because suddenly, the rock becomes tighter. Azula flinches again as the earth pushes onto her arms, further irritating the burns. Oh, how she misses her Royal armour.

“What do you think you’re doing here?” The Water peasant tries to look intimidating. It’s adorable, but Azula isn’t in the position to goad her right now.

“Okay! Okay! I’m here to join the Avatar,” she squeezes out between laboured breaths.

They laugh for a moment, and Azula almost feels like it as well. The slow realization that she  _ isn’t _ kidding stops their laughter abruptly, and their expressions change to shock instead.

“Toph,” the waterbender queries. “Is she lying?”

“It’s not like I can tell!”

If she wasn’t turning purple from suffocation, Azula would have smirked at that.

“Why would we  _ ever  _ believe that  _ you _ would want to join  _ us _ ?” The tribesman brandishes his sword.

“Yeah, how do we know, that circus freak and that gloomy girl won’t come around and ambush us at any moment? How do we know Zuko isn’t go-“

Zuko. 

She feels a weird twisting in her gut. Somehow the earthbender felt  _ something _ because she gets this dismayed look and the earth crumbles away, and Azula can finally breathe. 

“Toph, what are you doing?” the waterbender puzzles. 

Yes, what is she doing? Azula is as confused as everyone else, but she isn’t complaining. This might be her only chance. After she catches her breath, she bows her head, as high of an honour non-royalty can get from a princess. (Not that she is one anymore.)

“I wish to become your firebending master.”

If they’re considering her offer, they aren’t showing it. The waterbender stomps to the front, placing her body like a shield in front of the Avatar.  “Are you serious?" she sneers. "You expect us to just accept you after everything that you’ve done? It's like you're not even _trying_ to fool us anymore!”

“Oh, come on,” Azula scoffed. “I wasn’t  _ that  _ horrible.”

“You imprisoned the Kyoshi Warriors!” 

“An acceptable military target.”

“You took over Ba Sing Se!”

“In a bloodless coup.”

“Not to mention you killed Aang!”

“He’s standing right there.”

The tribesman groans. She is  _ really _ getting to them. (Wait, that's a bad thing.)

“You probably sent Sparky Sparky Boom Man after us!”

“He’s…” Azula pauses, and quirks up an eyebrow. “Who the hell is  _ Sparky Sparky Boom Man? _ ”

He  _ scoffs. _ “You know, the crazy buff guy who firebends with his mind?” he says, waving his hands like it somehow emphasizes his point. 

“Preposterous. I would never send another to do  _ my _ work,” Azula reassures.

They do not look reassured. If anything, they look even more agitated. Azula could swear she could hear a vein pop on the waterbender’s forehead.

“Great! You know what it says about you when the best thing you’ve done is  _ not _ sending a crazy assassin after us?” she yells. “You’re probably not even sorry you did any of it!”

“Well, I-”

She falters. Azula actually… isn’t sure if she’s sorry or not. Everything she’s done in her life up to this point has been in the name of her father. There wasn’t time to worry about trivial things such as morality. She did what she had to, for Father’s love. No, to avoid Father’s wrath. (Right?)

And look where that got her.

“I am-”

But why can’t she just  _ lie _ ? She’s done it without a problem all her life. Lying had been second nature to her, it was like breathing. And now, Azula feels like she’s drowning. It’s like there’s a lump stuck in her throat, and nothing can come out. They capitalize on her weakness.

“See, she can’t even say it!”

“Forget it, why don’t we just ask the one I actually came for what he thinks?”

All eyes fall on the Avatar. 

“No, we can’t trust you, not after all you’ve done,” he says, with conviction that’s quite uncharacteristic of him. 

Azula hates how desperate she’s coming off as. She can’t believe it’s come to this, her begging to join the Avatar. But she has to get them on her side, for  _ him _ . (She’s not strong enough alone.)

“You’re- you’re fools! All of you!” Azula raises her wounded hands, but she falters as the entire group flinch and get ready to fight. She relents, cursing herself for yet another slip.

“Leave, and we’d  _ better _ not see you again,” the waterbender snarls.

“Very well, you’ve made your choice,” she concedes with feigned nonchalance. 

She waits until she is out of the temple to yell. 

* * *

“Can you believe her?” Sugar Queen’s doing one of her infamous rants again. She’s stomping around in circles, and her heartbeat is going  _ crazy _ . “Out of all the tactics she’s used to try and kill us, that was the craziest. Lying about wanting to join us? Does she think this is some kind of sick joke?” 

“She wasn’t lying,” Toph mutters. She feels their heads all turning to her direction. Katara pauses for a moment, but then she returns to her pacing.

“Well- well how do you know? You even said that you can’t tell if she’s lying-” 

She snaps, “I just know okay!” They all freeze.

Yes, Toph’s aware that Azula isn’t the most morally zealous person. She knows she shot Aang, and she was  _ there _ when she shot Gramps.

But she  _ knows _ something felt different when she spoke. Toph is still confident that she’s a good judge of motivations, even if her truth detector isn’t foolproof. There is  _ no _ way someone could lie about something like that. Even Azula isn’t that good of a liar. She could feel the bitterness and anger radiating off of her. That slip up too... Toph is definitely missing something.

Not to mention that she definitely needs medical attention. Azula’s heartbeat was super uneven, and Toph could definitely sense some swelling on her forearms. Toph doesn’t know much about medicine, but she still knows how nasty second-degree burns can get if left untreated. 

And of course, the obvious thing.

“You guys are all forgetting that Aang needs a firebending teacher, and probably the _best_ _one_ just shows up on a silver platter, and you won’t even _consider_ her!”

“This is  _ Azula _ , we’re talking about Toph,” Sokka reminds. “She basically  _ is _ the Fire Nation!”

“Well evidently not, because she’s here at the Western Air Temple begging to join us while having what are probably some gnarly wounds on her arms, and not at the Royal Palace getting her nails done or whatever else Fire princesses are supposed to be doing!”

Toph storms off, but it’s a while before she gets out of earshot.

“What’s with her?”

Aang seems to shrug. “You think Azula was actually going to help us? If she was trying to capture her, I thought she’d be more, I don’t know... sinister?”

“Yeah, that was weird,” Sokka says. “To be honest, I thought she’d be more like,” Sokka raises the pitch of his voice to mimic Azula’s infamous sing-song tone, “‘Listen, Avatar. You can let me join your group or I can do something unspeakably horrible to you and your friends. Your choice!’ Not… whatever that was.” 

“Who even knows at this point?” Katara sneers. “Knowing her, that was probably somehow all a part of her plan.”

* * *

“That did  _ not  _ go according to plan!”

Who would’ve thought the great and beautiful Princess Azula, fresh off of conquering Ba Sing Se, and defeating the first land invasion of the Fire Nation in over a century, would be stuck camping out in the middle of nowhere after offering her service to the people she tried to kill for months. And then getting  _ rejected.  _

“Why won’t those idiots just believe I’m on their side? It’s not like I was trying to kill them!” She pauses. “Anymore.” 

“How do I get them to stop seeing me as some- some kind of monster, huh, Mother?” Azula pulls at her bangs, flinches at the pain it flares within her hands. She yelps in pain, and then again in frustration. How pathetic she must look.

Mother looks at her disapprovingly, like she usually does. (Azula thinks she deserves it this time.)

“Tell me,  _ Mother _ , what could I have done differently this time?”

Mother croaks and stares at her with glassy eyes. 

Stupid badgerfrog.

Azula touches her chin, careful not to inflammate her wounds. “Maybe I should’ve acted more like Mai.” She shakes her head. “Of course not. No, what would Ty Lee have done?”

She gets on her tippy toes, and flutters her eyelashes. “You guys are so fun, and your auras are  _ so _ pink!” Azula intones so sweetly she feels her teeth rotting. “I want to join you on your adventures, and beat up bad guys!”

Azula shakes her head, sobering herself, and grumbles. Mother  _ still _ continues to just stare at her. Just like her namesake.

“You useless little shit! Why won’t you just tell me what I’m doing wrong?” 

Mother just croaks again, and gallops away. Azula’s eyes narrow.

“Traitor.”

She lets herself fall on the damp forest grass, exasperated, and she thinks about where exactly things went wrong. 

But Azula can’t think of anything she particularly did wrong. She trained until her fingers bled to utilise her prodigious talents. She was the youngest to ever command the cold fire, and the first in centuries to wield blue flames. She never showed weakness to her Father, or anyone else for that matter. She was sent out to bring  _ him _ home, and she did, even disabling the Avatar and conquering Ba Sing Se while she was at it. Azula did everything right, and what good did that do her?

(No, she didn’t. There were many things she should’ve done differently. 

_ “Come with me, Azula.” _ )

A metal clank interrupts her thoughts. She wipes off the sweat under her eyes, and chooses to stalk the source.

* * *

Sokka is wolfing down Katara’s  _ juk _ when he sees Toph march out of into the courtyard with a bag slung around her shoulder. That’s weird. He can’t think of a place she should be going at this time; it’s usually Katara who trains Aang after lunch. He calls her name.

“Where are you going?”

“Good afternoon to you too, Snoozles,” she says, as she continues to walk away.

“ _ Toph _ .”

She stops for a moment, and does that thing where she blows at her bangs. “Fine, I’m going to talk to Azula, and you can’t stop me,” she declares. 

Wait, did he hear that correctly? The words hit him like a punch to the gut, and judging from Haru’s food-covered face, they probably actually did. 

“WHAT?”

He somehow did  _ not _ see that coming. Toph had been sympathizing with Azula, but Sokka didn’t think she was crazy enough to actually try and meet with her! 

“Are you  _ dumb _ ?” Sokka puzzles as he hands a cloth to Haru.

Toph wrinkles her nose, and glares at him.  _ Wait _ , Toph can’t see. Well, to Sokka that actually just makes it more terrifying. “I just want to know more about why she’s here, and besides, she seemed kinda beat up,” she explains. “From what I could feel, her wounds definitely need some patching up.”

“That doesn’t answer my other question!” Sokka yells. And yeah, they should  _ definitely _ nurture the psycho princess back to health. Great idea.

Toph has that crazy look Katara has when she gets mad. That is not good news. She stomps her foot on the ground. “We are  _ not _ doing this again, I’m going to see Azula because Twinkletoes  _ needs _ a firebending teacher, and you dunderheads are all too thick to see that!”

“Toph-”

That’s when Toph shoves him to the ground, and manifests a massive barrier of rock. 

“EVERYBODY GET DOWN!”

The wall shatters into a million pieces, and everyone is sent flying back. The world tilts sideways, he sees stars in his vision, and he can only hear a deathly ring. It takes him a while to refocus, but when he does, he sees the hulking figure in the distance. 

It’s Combustion Man. 

And he’s already starting to puff his chest. It’s too late. Sokka sobers himself, and thinks of something,  _ anything _ he can do, but he could only think to tackle Katara to the ground and somehow shield her from the impending death. 

He hears a distant  _ boom _ , then the familiar whine of the combustion beam, but then he finds himself both relieved and shocked. They’re still alive. They all probably have a few bruises, and even a few concussions between them, but they are in fact still breathing. Katara gently pushes off Sokka, and gets into a fighting stance. 

“What was that?” Toph groans. “How’re we not dead?” 

He stands, shakes his head to refocus, and looks to where Combustion Man is supposed to be. To his surprise, Combustion Man is not intent on destroying but instead attacking a lithe form. Sokka sees a dim flash of blue, and is immediately aware of who it is.

“It’s… Azula?”

_ Azula  _ is weaving Combustion Man’s punches as she tries to get close. She attacks with a flurry of reddish fire blasts from her feet, but they just bounce off him. Wait, what? Combustion Man seems to realize this as well, and Sokka braces herself as he turns to their group. He inhales deep, ready to channel death, but Azula clocks him with an axe kick to his skull. It barely fazes him, but it’s enough to once again set the beam off target. Sokka can see the frustration in his usually passive expression, and he turns his ire back on Azula.

Azula continues her attempts to elude, but a single metal haymaker to the temple is all it takes for Combustion Man to bring her down. She’s down for the count, and it hits him. Azula is going to die, and somehow, he thinks that’s a bad thing. Sokka doesn’t like Azula, but he can’t call himself a warrior if he loses an ally on his watch, no matter what her motivations are. (An ally?)

He throws Boomerang. 

* * *

So this is how it ends. After all that time Azula spent trying to kill the Avatar, and actually succeeding at that, she’s about to die trying to save him and his cronies. But Azula is no coward. If this is the way she goes out, so be it. Still dazed, she stares down his charging third eye, bracing herself.

However, she sees a flash of silver, and then hears a clank. The blast misses its mark. Instead, Azula is knocked ten feet back, and crashes into the nearby rubble.

When Azula opens her eyes, quite surprised at the fact that she is not dead, she sees the assassin with his back turned to her, attacking relentlessly in the direction of the Avatar’s group. She knows she has to do  _ something _ . Azula did not go through this much trouble to find the Avatar just to be foiled by some three-eyed freak, but it’s almost as if he’s immune to firebending, and there is absolutely zero possibility of her generating lightning with her arms in this state. There has to be another way. She takes a moment to analyze her situation, and she spies something shiny in the rubble beside her.

_ The boomerang. _

She rushes to pick up the boomerang with her still-wounded arms, and  _ oh _ it burns, but pain is only weakness leaving the body, and Azula is anything but weak. With shaky hands, she grits her teeth and puts all her momentum forward, hammering the blade down into the assassin’s back. 

Pulling it out in an instant, she then imbeds it in him again, this time straight through his neck. She twists it, and yanks it out to the side, preventing any last-ditch effort to take her with him.

The assassin falls over, and hits the ground with a  _ thunk _ . Azula finally breathes, and drops the boomerang onto the ground. The pain finally hits her, and her arms feel like they’re on  _ fire _ . Again. She must’ve reopened the wound.   
  
She opens her mouth, perhaps to scream, but she’s too exhausted for even that. The world tilts to the side, and everything turns to black. 

* * *

(Another job well done. The Avatar’s group didn’t even stand a chance. Why Zuzu would even remotely consider joining that band of misfits, Azula doesn’t know. Speaking of Zuzu, where was he anyway? Isn’t he supposed to be leading the ambush in the event that they escape the tunnels? (Oh no, he  _ didn’t _ …)

She will deal with that later.

Azula is just outside her father’s chamber to report their victory when she hears an explosion, followed by a pained scream from inside the chamber.  _ Well _ , it seems the Avatar has decided to pay Father a visit after all, and has paid dearly for it. How foolish.

Although, she doesn’t recall the Avatar having such a low voice. She dismisses that thought quickly. Perhaps his voice has dropped since Ba Sing Se? (That sounded almost like-)

When she pushes open the chamber doors, she’s met with the smell of singed flesh. And then, she sees her father with his fists smoking, standing triumphantly over the body of his fallen opponent. He sports an almost manic grin, standing in a ring of flame as if he’s a mighty dragon warding his rivals away from his game. However, the prey is not who she’s expecting.

She stifles her scream.)

* * *

Azula wakes up with a start. The bed is soft, and her arms are bandaged. She’s surprised she feels clean, and the once searing pain that was constant on her arms has been reduced to a distant numbness. She hears footsteps from the doorway.

“It’s ‘bout time you woke up,” the visitor says.

It’s the earthbender. She plops herself on top of the bed, and stretches her arms.

“I guess I should thank you for saving us.”    
  
“My  _ pleasure _ ,” Azula replies somewhat sarcastically. She’s still shaken by her familiarity.

“Katara healed your wounds while you were out. You don’t know how hard it was to get her to do that.” She laughs. “Oh, and Sokka pocketed a few of your coins while you were out, he said it was ‘reparations’ for what you put Boomerang through.” They both roll their eyes. 

Her smile fades. She points at Azula’s arms.

“Who did that to you?”

“Who do you think?”

She frowns.“Damn, and I thought my dad was crazy. What did you even do for him to do that, and not just… I don’t know, ground you?”

"I- I showed weakness."

Her eyes crinkle, and somehow Azula knows she understands.  Silence fills the room for a moment. 

“You know, we never really introduced ourselves,” she quips, breaking the silence. “I’m Toph.”

“Azula,” she replies. (Not Princess Azula.)

“Nice to meet you, Azula.” She feels a sharp pain on her shoulder, and tenses up.

“Woah, relax! That’s just a thing I do to my friends,” Toph says. She narrows her eyes. “Wait, don’t tell me you’ve never had friends?”

“I  _ did _ !” Azula huffs. Toph casts a mocking smile. 

“But we are _not_ friends, this is merely a tactical alliance,” Azula responds.

Toph cocks an eyebrow. “Aren’t you trying to convince us you’re our side?”

Toph grins when Azula, in a rare moment, can’t find the words to respond to that. (She really is losing her touch.)

“C’mon, let’s go meet everyone, Spicy.” 

_ Spicy? _

* * *

"-I can’t say I regret doing the things I did. There were… consequences if I ever failed, consequences that should be obvious to you by now.” 

The Avatar’s group look at her grimly, still unimpressed. Except Toph, who’s smirking. She feels the cool breeze of the Air Temple tousle her hair, as if it’s blowing away her entire past. There’s still a twist in her stomach as she thinks about everything she’s left behind. (Leave what? It was all a lie in the end.)

“But, for the record, I am…” Azula looks down to her bandaged arms. “....sorry that I hurt you.”

“As for what I could offer you, I’m probably the best firebender you’ve ever seen, and it’s not like there’s any others willing to teach you.” Azula sees Toph subtly nod at her, as if she’s signalling something.  _ Oh. _

“And yes, I am intending to end the war.” They all seem to exhale a bit after she adds that last part. (And she is.) 

The Watertribe boy clears his throat, and taps his chin. “But what I still don’t really get is why you all of a sudden want to join us?” Sokka points out.

Toph punches him in the arm. “Hasn’t she done enough, Snoozles?” 

“I know, but I’m just-”

Azula knows if she wants them on her side, she needs them to trust her for once. That means being transparent, to them, and to herself. She takes a deep breath, and says the words.

“Because Zuko is dead.” 

She hears a collective gasp. Azula is in disbelief too. The words still don’t seem real. (But Azula doesn’t always lie.)

“Because Ozai killed my brother, and it’s my duty to avenge him.” 

“I- I’m so sorry Azula, we didn’t know,” Aang stutters. She can actually sense their grief. Even Katara starts to tear up a bit. (Why? It’s not like they had ever done anything for them)

“I don’t expect us to be the best of friends or anything. We have a common enemy, and so we should be allies. That’s all I need it to be.” (Nothing else.)

They stand in solemn silence for a while, and the air feels crushingly heavy. Aang finally speaks up. “For what it’s worth, I think you’d be a great firebender teacher. I always knew that I needed a master that knew how to keep their emotions in check, and you’re pretty good at that,” Aang offers.

“Great to hear-” She takes a step towards the group, but Aang raises a hand to stop her.

“Woah, not so fast,” he interjects. “I need to ask what everyone else thinks. Toph?”

“You already know my answer.”

“Sokka?”

He shrugs. “I mean she hates the Fire Lord, I hate the Fire Lord. As long as she doesn’t want to kill us anymore, I don’t really have a problem with it.”

“Katara?”

She pauses for a moment, glowering at Azula. She then turns to Aang with a more somber look. “I’ll go with whatever you think, Aang,” she finally says.

“I guess that settles it,” Aang declares. Azula somehow feels lighter now.

As if they’ve been acquainted all their lives, and not sworn enemies moments earlier, Azula sees Aang grin at her obnoxiously. She actually starts to feel a small tug at her lips. That is, until she sees him open his mouth.

“When do we start, Sifu Hotwoman?”

_ What  _ did he just call her?

Azula’s eyes drift from his  _ infuriatingly _ innocent face to Toph picking her nose and flicking it at Katara. Then, they drift to Sokka caressing his newly cleaned boomerang, cooing and whispering reassurances to it, eyeing her scandalously. 

What has Azula gotten herself into? 

**Author's Note:**

> if you leave a comment you are the goat. praise, criticism, rotten tomatoes, i accept all with open arms!
> 
> if i write more fics ill be nicer to zuko i promise :(


End file.
